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Just to show, it's not all fantasy and horror round here.

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Another illustration by yours truly.

Basil Copper RIP

Sad news. I've just learned that another member of the Fantasy Family has died. Basil Copper died in hospital yesterday. He was 89. Although we were not close friends I always found him the perfect gentleman. He also seemed to possess a sense of the mischievousness, as evidenced by the photo I took of him in 2008 at one of the BFS's Open Nights.

[Photo (c) Peter Coleborn]

Playlist for 2013 -- part 3

Here are the tracks selected for March.

60        Thalia Zedek – Dance Me to the End of Love

61        Moriaty – Jimmy

62        Magazine – Shot by Both Sides

63        Band – Long Black Veil

64        David Bowie – Five Years

65        Smashing Pumpkins – Disarm

66        New York Dolls – Personality Crisis

67        Can – Yoo Doo Right

68        Rich Kids – Ghosts of Princes in Towers

69        Television – Marquee Moon

70        John Lennon – Gimme Some Truth

71        Ministry – Jesus Built My Hotrod

72        Steeleye Span – Rave On

73        Cranberries – Zombie

74        Easybeast – Friday on My Mind

75        David McWilliams – Days of Pearly Spencer

76        Ice T – The Tower

77        Nirvana – Penny Royal Tea

78        Placebo – Pure Morning

79        Robyn Hitchcock – Trash

80        Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Chile

81        Roxy Music – Mother of Pearl

82        Crocodiles – Jet Boy, Jet Girl

83        Gang of Four – At Home He's a Tourist

84        Byrds – Ballard of Easyrider

85        Pretty Things – Good Mr Square/She Was Tall

86        Sonic Youth – Sugar Kane

87        Cracker – Big Dipper

88        Libertines – The Man Who Would be King

89        Rasputina – Bad Moon Rising

90        Yardbirds – Shapes of Things

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I'm rather pleased with this image.

Networking

Last Saturday I was on the panel at a Writers’ Networking meeting, run by Writing West Midlands. I was accompanied by Kate Long (The Bad Mother’s Handbook) and Jan Edwards (The Alchemy Press Book of Ancient Wonders).

Kate talked about her writing career – how she became a successful published author. It was an interesting tale, one that involved all the usual: perseverance, thick skin, talent, and luck, etc. I then discussed the small press – focussing on The Alchemy Press, obviously – and mainly in the SF, fantasy and horror field. Jan then had to finish off and made a lot of valuable points about submitting one’s work to an anthology (most important of which was ‘read the guidelines’). Judging by the feedback after the formal part of the meeting, our words were well received.

I was glad to see that several members of our writers’ group – Renegade Writers – turned up. Fortunately they didn’t heckle, as they had promised to do so. Thanks, guys.

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Here's another of my Altered Images.

Playlist for 2013 - Part 2

In an earlier post I listed the first 31 tracks on my 2013 playlist. Here are numbers 32 to 59 – in other words, February’s five–star songs.

32    Rheostatics – Legal Age Life at the Variety Store

33    Special Needs – Francesca

34    Theatre of Hate – Do You Believe in the Westworld?

35    Quatermass – Black Sheep of the Family

36    Belle & Sebastian – The Boy with the Arab Strap

37    Ultravox – Vienna

38    Two Gallant – Las Cruces Jail

39    Hapshash and the Coloured Coat – The Wall

40    Python Lee Jackson – In a Broken Dream

41    Small Faces – Lazy Sunday

42    Mumford & Sons – Little Lion Man

43    Saints – This Perfect Day

44    Tim Rose – Morning Dew

45    Neil Young – Like a Hurricane

46    Juicy Lucy – Who Do You Love?

47    Panama Ltd Jug Band – Round and Round

48    Groundhogs – Garden

49    Patti Smith – Because the Night

50    Janis Jopin – Cry Baby

51    Rolling Stones – Let it Bleed

52    Kevin Ayers – The Oyster and the Flying Fish

53    Adverts – Gary Gilmore's Eyes

54    Clint Eastwood & General Saint – I Can't Face Another World War

55    Strawbs – New World

56    TV on the Radio – Poppy

57    Johnny Cash – The Man Comes Around

58    Bob Dylan – Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts

59    Remy Zero – Save Me

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The original photo was taken at one of the Tolkien weekends, a few years ago. Edited to remove the background kids eating ice cream cones.

Altered Images - 1

I've had another go at drawing, using charcoal pencils and oil pastels. Then I scanned them into Photoshop and had a little play with them.

Then I had a go at drawing a monster -- you'll probably guess the inspiration for this beast. I did the Photoshop jig on this picture, too. But I'm not sure it quite works.